Fenger coach charged in attack

October 12, 2011|By Jeremy Gorner | Tribune reporter

The head varsity football coach at Fenger High School was charged last week with misdemeanor simple assault for allegedly threatening a student who was accused by one of the coach’s players of stealing a pair of Nike flip flops, Chicago police confirmed today.

The charge stems from a melee on Oct. 1 in which some 20 to 30 teens attacked Darion Jones, 16, and his 15-year-old nephew at Jones’ home in the 11800 block of South Wentworth Avenue.

A 17-year-old boy was arrested the following day and charged as a juvenile with misdemeanor battery after he was identified as one of the teens who punched Jones, O’Brien said.

Fenger drew international attention after the beating death of an honor roll student, 16-year-old Derrion Albert, was captured on video during a melee near the school in 2009. Five assailants went to prison -- four for lengthy sentences -- for that attack.

Jones’ mother, Patricia Thurmond-Jones, said last week that her son lost a tooth in the beating and had another one knocked loose. He also lost a prosthetic contact lens covering his right eye, which he lost to cataracts as a young child, she said.